bronzdragon wrote:Mead is simply a wine made from honey instead of fruit. It is actually the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man ... starting off in the ancient Egyptian times and all.
I've been making mead for 15 years or so. The trick with mead is letting it mature. What tastes like a harsh drink after fermentation will age beautifully like a big red wine.
Ken Schramm, in his book "The Compleat Meadmaker" likens some of the higher alcohol meads to "Listerine", I just say "medicinal" as most people follow that (rather than a brand name)
Each different type of honey makes a different tasting mead. Experimentation is the key.
I use 15 pounds of honey in a 5 gal batch and a vial of White Labs Sweet Mead yeast, made into slurry and brought up to about a quart.
My primary goes about 2 weeks, then rack off lees and into glass for 6 months, then into glass for tertiary fermentation another 6 months and then into bottles.
There are lots of other things I've learned over the years, but it would take up too much board space, lol.
cheers
~r~
I've got a batch (well 2 really) for experimenting with the Wyeast sweet/dry mead yeasts and according to the data sheet, the sweet mead yeast will only go to about 11%, whereas the dry mead yeast will hit 18% - that's allowing about 4lb of honey to the gallon. The S.G. was about 1134 - so the sweet batch/jar is gonna be very sweet i.e. about 5 or 6 % residual sugar - the dry one should ferment to dry.
So far, my favourite yeast is Lalvin 71B-1122 - it goes to about 14 or so % so about 3.5 lb per gallon should give me some residual sweetness without the higher% yeast problem of medicinal taste.
As you say, the honey can make a huge difference.
If it wouldn't cost me so much in shipping I'd try
this one
What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away. Tom Waits.